1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and system for preventing crawling insects from entering, for example, residential structures, commercial structures, industrial structures, other structures inhabited or occupied by people and/or animals, or simple objects such as a tree. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and a system that provides a non-toxic physical barrier having the capability of preventing the passage of crawling insects past the barrier and of confining the crawling insects within a given enclosure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Crawling insects constitute a serious problem in various areas such as agricultural plots and other environments such as plant nurseries and animal nurseries. The problem becomes even more intense where the crawling insect population may be very dense due to the nature of the environment, the density being as high as thousands of specimens per square meter. Such crawling insects pose a particular threat to the poultry business as the environment of a poultry house is particularly conducive to the breeding of harmful crawling insects.
The darkling beetle, commonly referred to as the lesser mealworm, and the hide beetle pose the most direct threat to poultry houses. The lesser mealworm has few natural enemies and each adult female may produce up to 2000 eggs with a new generation being produced each month. The rapid reproduction rate in combination with the untreated litter and manure within the poultry house allows populations of the beetle larvae and adults to become so high that the litter appears to be alive with crawling insects. Poultry house temperatures, reuse of litter, easy access of feed, and short turnaround times between flocks of chickens all provide ideal environmental conditions for lesser mealworm populations to get out of hand in modern production facilities.
The damage that such crawling insects can do is serious. They may endanger the structural integrity of building structures that are mounted on support and associated structures connected to the ground. Support and associated structures include, for example, foundation walls surrounding either a crawl space or a basement, external veneer or fascia, perimeter pier construction with or without an external veneer, interior piers or posts supporting the weight of the specific structure, and concrete slabs with wood frame construction. Furthermore, such crawling insects may cause damage to the interior walls or insulation of the structures due to their burrowing activities.
The economic impact of the darkling and hide beetles on the poultry business is, as expected, considerable. In addition to the damage to the structural integrity of the poultry house caused by the boring of the insects into the supporting structure of the poultry house, the insects burrow into and damage poultry house insulation which causes a significant reduction in available insulation and resultantly significantly higher fuel usage for temperature control of the house. Typically, a new poultry house will show substantial and visible damage after just one cycle of birds which is a universal problem in modern caged-layer and pullet houses.
Further, the migration of lesser mealworms into the cage area of enclosed broiler and layer poultry houses via the structure of the house allows for the consumption of the beetle larvae by chicks or poults which may result in decreased weight gain and reduced feed efficiency. Still further, consumption of the lesser mealworm and the enteric bacteria that are present in the migrating larva form of the lesser mealworm may transmit many costly poultry diseases to the enclosed birds.
At the present time, most structures that are mounted on support and associated structures utilize highly toxic poisons to prevent crawling insects from reaching the structures. This is also true in the poultry industry. While frequent and thorough cleaning of the poultry house may lower lesser mealworm numbers, this is difficult to accomplish in many areas due to limited litter disposal sites and expense. Similarly, freezing temperatures will also help to reduce or eliminate populations of lesser mealworms, but with rapid turn-around times between flocks this is not a reliable method of control. Morever, temperatures in many regions rarely reach freezing for a sufficiently long time to have an impact on beetle populations. Therefore, the previously accepted practical solution for control of darkling and hide beetles, or other crawling insects, has been the extensive use of pesticides, such as chlorpyriphos or cyfluthrin, in the poultry house.
However, pesticide treatment for control of the darkling and hide beetles and associated crawling insects is impractical. The timing of the application of the pesticide is critical as the poultry house litter has a high pH and pesticides tend to have a short effective life at high pH, as short as a day. Also, the darkling and hide beetles do not remain in the upper layers of the litter for more than a few days after a flock is removed from the house and, since the pesticide is normally applied when the chickens are not present in the house, it is difficult to bring the darkling and hide beetles into contact with pesticide while the pesticide is still effective. Due to the time limitations of the effectiveness of the pesticide, the user or a contracted service must periodically replace the pesticide in order to continue to preclude the unwanted intrusion of the crawling insects into the structure. Additionally, if the areas surrounding the house or the nearby fields are infested, the house will soon become reinfested.
Pesticide control of crawling insects, and particularly darkling and hide beetles, has another serious limitation as the use of pesticides eliminates crawling insects that might have a beneficial purpose in the specific environment. For example, the darkling and hide beetles have a beneficial function in a poultry house as the insects loosen and aerate manure in the litter, thus reducing housefly breeding in large numbers which otherwise could pose a health and nuisance threat to human and animal populations near the poultry house.
The herein invention, exemplary forms of which are described in detail hereinafter, has been originated to overcome the deficiencies inherent in the prior art and to provide an insect barrier system having the capability of preventing crawling insects from having access to materials that they would otherwise destroy.